Approval of Previous Minutes —

Approval of minutes from the January 30, 2025, meeting. Frank Weinhold motions to approve. Evanna Dominic seconds. Minutes approved by acclamation.

Student Senate Report

Evanna Dominic (Undergraduate): 

• Student Senate Executive members traveled to Washington DC to attend the “Big Twelve on the Hill” Conference. They lobbied with other student representatives from Big Twelve schools for college affordability and pathways to employment.
• After they returned from Washington DC, they had the opportunity to lobby with local Kansas representatives at the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka, KS.
• Student Senate Executive members were able to visit with Kansas representatives about projects that Student Senate is working on and the unique opportunities at KU. 

Brendan Falen (Graduate): 

• Brendan agrees with Evanna about the great opportunity to visit Washington DC followed by the trip to State Capitol.
• Brendan met with Kansas representatives Sharice Davids and Derek Schmidt along with Senator Robert Marshall, Senator Jerry Moran, and Representative Tracey Mann.
• This is Brendan’s second year going to the “Big Twelve on the Hill” conference – and has experienced the conference both on the hosting side and non-hosting/attendee side.

Required Campus Fees: Josh asks Brendan and Evanna about finalizing the fees for next year as Josh is receiving questions. Some articles have come out regarding future student fees and their evolution for the upcoming months: 

• Brendan mentions there were disputes over the required campus fees proposed for next year -- particularly with the cut to the University Daily Kansan (UDK) and Safe Ride.
• The Required Campus Fee Committee will be meeting again to review these disputes and they plan to go through every line item and see where changes can be made to the budget.
• Those changes will then be sent back to the Finance Committee.
• The required campus fee budget needs to be submitted by April 1.
• The deliberations will be streamed via the “Staff Senate You Tube” channel – feel free to tune in. 

Staff Senate Report

• The Personnel Committee was able to put forth discussion at the last Staff Senate meeting regarding a proposed “Inclement Weather” policy.
• There are some strong feelings about the current policy and several nuances to consider.
• Teri discussed with Provost (in their meeting) some ways to support the staff that need to be on campus during inclement weather and possible ways to provide accommodation.
• The other topic being reviewed is the formation of an IT Committee within Staff Senate. This will hopefully move forward to being approved soon – more details to come.
• Staff Senate elections are coming up -- last day to submit nominations is March 7th.
• Sasha asks if people could spread the word about student senate elections and encourage students to run for Student Senate if they’re interested. Those nominations close on March 14th. 

Faculty Senate Report

• Sam sent KBOR the Faculty Senate letter surrounding Core 34 curriculum changes.
• The KBOR Vice President for Academic Affairs, Rusty Monhollon, plans to speak at the next Faculty Senate meeting (on March 6).
• The Council of Facutly Senate Presidents continues to work on the Facutly of the Year Award to include non-tenured track faculty. The council is also working on tuition assistance programs to span across all KBOR institutions. Many from KU took the survey about this.
• There is discussion by the KBOR Judiciary Committee regarding a House bill that would remove tenure at Kansas public universities. Sam is having discussions with other Faculty Senate presidents under the KBOR umbrella about his. Chancellor Girod also talked on the House floor, along with other university leaders in Kansas, against this bill.
• There has been difficulty constituting the Faculty Rights Board so there is a Code proposal to remove the tenure requirement of the members on this board. This will be discussed next week at Faculty Senate. 

• Another proposed change is that the Faculty Senate Executive Committee nominate a liaison to the United Academics of the University of Kansas union. 

   

University Senate Report

• There are a couple letters that have been drafted to KU Administration:

   

  • Gateway District : includes concerns/questions from students, faculty, and staff regarding how it will impact them and the KU Community. 

  • Dual Employment Restriction : This letter pertains to updates to the Fair Labor Standard Act regulations and reporting requirements relating to  hours that undergraduate students may work. Undergraduate students will soon not be allowed to have both an hourly and salaried position at the same time. The letter will include perspectives from both students and staff. Are there any alternative pathways for students that rely on both jobs? 

     

• The Excused Absence Policy is still in the works but other avenues are being explored rather than specifically focusing on the policy language. More testing centers will potentially be available along with other resources that could help provide accommodation to excused absences. 

Please remember end-of-year reports. HLC visits are also coming up. 

New Business —

Change to Calendar Committee membership: 

Proposed change to add a representative from the Office of Faculty Affairs to the University Senate Calendar Committee. 

Changes to the University calendar can have a significant impact on faculty. A representative from Faculty Affairs would be an ex-officio member. 

• This can be discussed and voted on today but need 2/3 vote to suspend the rules to take a vote today + discuss at University Senate for first time.
• Brendan Falen motions to suspend rules. Jessica Chilcoat seconds. Poll goes out for vote. Motion passes.
• Motion to approve the changes to Article X: Standing Committees of the University Senate – Calendar Committee membership. Evanna Dominic motions to approve. Frank Weinhold seconds motion.
• Vote goes out – majority approved. Motion passes. 

Grade Replacement Policy change: to encompass any grade that’s A- or below. 

• What are the implications of changing this policy? Could this open the door to misunderstandings?
• The policy applies to undergraduate students and some graduate programs do not allow grade replacement in GPA calculation when applying to the program.
• There may need to be more discussion on the implications of changing the policy.
• Jake gives some insights from an academic advising perspective. 

This doesn’t need to be voted on today and can be reviewed at next SenEx meeting. There is no longer quorum so can’t be voted on today but the dialogue has been helpful. 

Competency Based Education:

• KU has started having more dialogue surrounding Competency Based Education programs. As the need for these programs increases, there will be a need for Code changes.
• There will be a proposal soon regarding the addition of a grading system for these programs.
• The request is to include the grading system of M (Mastered), NM (Not Mastered), IP (In Progress) – for competency-based hours. These are found in the Jayhawk Flex program.
• Brendan gives insight from School of Professional Studies which will soon have 1 or 2 CBE program.

More information to come soon regarding the Environmental and Sustainability Committee. This is currently with Chancellor. Josh feels that assuming this is approved, the staffing of the committee will go through normal process over the summer. Sasha and student senators drafted some initial charges to get started. These can be used as a foundation to get the committee started. 

Meeting adjourned.